So, not really tomorrow a trip to Singapore and then to South S'traya got in the way.
Anyway - the roads were pretty much finished when I left off just some highlights with a beige paint and then white:
Turned out that the roads were still to dark when I compared them to the others, so I ended up savaging them with the beige paint.
As you can see in the top of the picture I also tried to cut a few holes in the surface to take advantage of the foam, they didn't show up well in the end, but they add depth to the board subconsciously, ending the impression of the flat grassy plain.
Next were the towels. I first saw this idea in the back of Battlegroup: Kursk, and when we tried it at my old club it turned out horribly for a few reasons. Firstly we used white towel and painted it later with so much paint we used it by the can (like wall paint), not only did this leave us with a whole load of mess it was also wasteful and meant the towel went hard as the paint dried and was forever scratchy and horrible. Then we used loads of different towels with different stringy-thing styles, very square, long and plushy, old and rageddy - this left us with a horrible mish-mash of textures. Finally we had to cover some areas in more than one towel and the boundaries between them looked absolutely awful.
So, I have tried to use the same towel (that is, from the same shelf in the shop) for every area on the board, covering each area in one piece. I have also used a green towel which means I don't have to paint it and so it stays nice and soft. Of course it didn't go exactly to plan as the shop ran out of the towel I was using and so I had to start using a similar one, but you will see the results.
Firstly I cut out the rough shapes from the towel as above, being very liberal so that I don't end up with not enough towel to cover the boards in the end.
 |
| A quick tip, I used some old nails to hold the towel in place as I was cutting it - stopping me from sliding it around and slicing off bits I really needed |
Then I neatened it up so that the edge of the towel piece followed the roads - then on to gluing. Using the glue very liberally I concentrated on the edge of the board and area to be towelled, as well as the bottoms and tops of wills and ditches.
This just ensures that the towel does not come away from the board in the places it is most likely to.
Then: Finished! (for now - I might add some hedges later)
 |
| The finished tile - notice the hills and ditches become a lot less prominent when the towel is over them. |
 |
| With the other tiles for comparison - the two followed this time are the two on the left. |
 |
| A German heavy mortar, ready to fire |
 |
| A Panzer IV peers around a corner in the sunken lane way |
 |
| A sniper watches over his comrades advance |
 |
| The difference in colour between the older tiles and the newer ones (the older one is the brighter one) - the closest I could get when they discontinued the old colour of green towel. |
So - all done (but I may add hedges later). The question arises ... what next?
